The Saudi Arabian General Authority of Roads has unveiled over 575 kilometers of roads across different regions in the first quarter of 2024, as part of an extensive project package. According to Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi, the authority’s official spokesperson, these newly opened roads include the 51-kilometer Jeddah-Makkah Expressway, the 40-kilometer doubling of the Haden-Turubah Road, the 15-kilometer doubling of the Mukhwah-Majarda “Muhayil” Road, the 64-kilometer Dhahran-Al-Aqiq-Salwa Road, the more than 31.65-kilometer road connecting Al-Baha to the Riyadh/Rin/Bisha Road, and the 340-kilometer doubling of the Riyadh-Rin-Bisha Road.
Al-Otaibi emphasized the authority’s ongoing efforts to meet the strategic goals of the road sector, focusing on safety, quality, and traffic flow, with the aim of reducing fatalities to less than 5 per 100,000 people by 2030, while also improving the global road quality index ranking to sixth place.
He also highlighted that the compliance rate for projects supervised by the authority has risen to 93.2%, exceeding the targeted rate for 2023 of 90%. This underscores the authority’s dedication to further enhancing the road network, which currently ranks first globally in road connectivity according to the World Bank. Such improvements play a crucial role in bolstering various vital sectors, including industry, tourism, pilgrimage, and others, in alignment with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030.
